The team at City Loan knows that starting a business is just one part of the journey. Once your business is up and running, the next step is expansion. City Loan, which offers car title loans with no credit check, recently underwent an expansion itself. While the company initially offered its services to residents of California only, it now offers loans to people in Texas and New Mexico, and will soon expand to South Carolina, Missouri and Utah as well.
“We are excited to bring The City Loan Difference to new markets,” says Bryan Gillooly, VP of Sales and Operations. “We have built excellent relationships with many customers in California and look forward to providing the same level of service and financial help that many people need in these new states.” The company also offers some sage pieces of advice to other businesses that looking to expand.
Diversify Your Product Offerings
One simple way to increase your business is to add a new product or somehow diversify the products you offer. For example, if your company produces yoga mats, you can expand by offering a slightly thicker yoga mat or a mat made of a different material.
You can also offer a service in addition to the products you sell. If you go into stores that focus on athletic apparel, you’ll often find that they offer classes or other activities related to working out. Don’t just sell yoga mats, for instance – offer a series of yoga classes, as well.
Form Relationships
Teamwork is another way to grow your business. Forming relationships not only with customers, but also with businesses that are in related areas can help you expand. Continuing with the yoga mat company example, you might team up with a local yoga studio to run a promotion that highlights your mat. The studio can sell your mats, receiving a commission for each mat sold.
Consider an Acquisition or Merger
Mergers and acquisitions offer you the chance to grow your company by taking over or joining forces with another company. In some cases, a merger can help two struggling companies become stronger and help them weather a rough economic climate together. Joining forces with another company allows you to take advantage of that company’s customer base, as well as the best and brightest employees on its staff.
Open a Second Location
If you have a company with a brick and mortar location, opening an additional location can seem like the most obvious way to expand. But, as the team at City Loan points out, adding locations isn’t necessarily the best way to grow your company. You want to make sure that opening the new location won’t hurt the bottom line of the first store. The new spot should have its own business plan, as well. You’ll also want to pick the best people from your current team to manage and work at the new location.
Consider Offering Franchise Opportunities
Franchising is one way to expand across the country or into different states without stretching yourself too thin, according to the team from City Loan. When you franchise, you own the concept, but someone else owns the actual business. It’s not only a great way to help your business increase. It’s also a great way to provide an opportunity to another aspiring entrepreneur
Find a New Customer Base
Odds are, you have a target demographic. Finding new demographics to reach out to and work with will help increase the stability of your company, as you’ll have something to fall back on in case the original customer base decreases or vanishes entirely.
Look Online
If your company isn’t online yet, now is the time to make the move. Creating some type of online presence, whether you offer your product or service online or just let people know about your company, is absolutely essential in this day and age. Put as much information about your company online as possible, so that people get a clear idea of who you are, no matter where in the world they are located.
Look Overseas
Another way to grow your business is to move into other countries. Perhaps the easiest way to expand internationally is to find another company in a foreign country THAT is interested in working with you, according to Inc. magazine. That way, you’ll have your foot in the door, as well as a guide to help you learn to navigate the ups and downs of doing business in that country.
Find Financing
Of course, it’s difficult to take your business to the next level if you don’t have the financing to cover the costs. You have a few options when it comes to financing the growth of your business, from working with interested investors to seeking out loans that don’t require a credit check. Explore all your options and pick that one that best helps your bottom line.
Taking the next step with your business isn’t just important for you as an owner. It also helps out the new customer base that you’re able to reach, as you’ll be able to provide them with stellar service and a possibly a better way of doing things, note the professionals at City Loan.